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Making the Training Function Return on the Investment

Monthly Archives: May 2016

How do you handle the employees in your organization that reject learning? Either they reject learning something new, a different way of working, or assistance.

While most people enjoy learning, most of us need to be convinced to open up to any kind of change. Learning something invites us to possible change, and thus we as adult learners must always be sold on the benefits of learning. We also need to be sold on the urgency of learning. Urgency is key to an adult learner because once again we are busy people and learning just to fill in time is not a valid reason. Learning because something is about to change and I need the information to do my job is a great reason.

I reviewed all this simply to set the stage for another reason people reject learning that needs to be addressed when it is the remaining culprit blocking your efforts to build skills

The reason is Ego.

“No I don’t need to learn another way because the way I do it works just fine.”

“No I don’t need your help because I am fully capable of doing it myself.”

“No I don’t want to learn another method because I am the boss and no longer need anyone.”

“No I don’t need your opinion because my way is the only way.”

When you run into Ego as the reason someone doesn’t need help, want to learn, or refuses your efforts to make life easier, I have a simple response that will keep your sanity.

Leave them alone, and let them succeed or fail by themselves.

Sorry if you think that is heartless, but people that are so full of themselves that the only reason for refusing to learn is their ego, there is no changing that from an external process. You must let them prove to themselves that they were either right or wrong. And the best teacher that something might have made a difference is failure. No one is harder on themselves than a person hung up on their ego.

Yes it is hard to watch someone crash and burn, but next time they just might be more open to learning.

Most management retention surveys will tell you that employee development ranks very high on the reason your employees stay with you year to year, and that compensation is actually near the bottom of the list. While every company pays their employees to work, not every company provides training development.

Why Don’t You Train Your Employees?

I made a friend this past week by asking this question. Not really a friend at first since he was beyond ticked off that I had the audacity to ask the question, but eventually he warmed up to understanding the value he was missing by not providing his employees with professional development. Let’s say we parted as friends.

You see this company has a great reputation, and very good employee reviews on sites like Glassdoor.com, and if they were only looking at training as a retention tool, I can see why it was never prioritized very high. Yet, when I discovered that most of their recruiting efforts required HR to go outside the company, I realized it was because they were not building competencies in-house.

There was also zero succession plans on the books for any position in this company of 150+ employees and they continued plans to grow would be hampered if they continually need to source external applicants.

You may wonder why your company trains management and leadership competencies. If subject matter experts are trained in management communications they can assume supervisory and manager roles in their units. If you don’t train these skills then you are hard pressed to promote people. You have to go outside.

Yet the same goes for skills to perform another person’s job. If you can train an existing employee to do another job, you retain an employee that already knows your culture and how to get things done. They “hit the ground running” better than an external hire.

If you currently don’t train your employees beyond the required compliance topics for your industry, then let’s talk for 30 minutes. The call is free, and I guarantee there are benefits to training that you are not using to your advantage. Email me at jim@jkhopkinsconsulting.com to set up a time to talk.